Traditional transportation modes via water, land, rail and air revolutionized the movement and growth of our current culture. However, the adverse environmental, societal and economic impacts of these traditional transportation models initiated a movement to find alternative transportation modes that take advantage of the significant improvements in transportation technology and efficiently move people and materials between locations. High speed transportation systems utilizing rails or other structural guidance components have been contemplated as a solution to existing transportation challenges while improving safety, decreasing the environmental impact of traditional transportation modes and reducing the overall time commuting between major metropolitan communities.
One type of transportation system utilizes a low-pressure environment in order to reduce drag on a vehicle at high operating speeds, thus providing the dual benefit of allowing greater speed potential and lowering the energy costs associated with overcoming drag forces. Such systems are embodied by a tubular structure in which a near vacuum exists within the tube; thus, these systems utilize any number of acceleration systems to achieve the high operating speeds.
Frictional forces resulting from the high operating speeds of the vehicle render conventional carrier systems, such as wheels, impractical. Air bearings or magnetic levitation bearings have been turned to as an alternative to conventional carrier systems. Such air bearings may utilize a thin film of pressurized air to provide an exceedingly low friction load-bearing interface between surfaces and such magnetic levitation bearings may provide a magnetic repulsion force that defines a low friction load-bearing interface between surfaces. However, since air bearings and magnetic levitation bearings have not previously been known to be utilized in ultra-high speed, ultra low-pressure environments, there is a need for a testing environment with controlled pressure that can replicate high speed conditions.